BRIDGES INSTEAD OF WALLS

A resonant profile of the great singer and Civil Rights activist.

Cast in third person despite the lead-author credit, Staples’ tale goes back to the Great Migration, when Roebuck “Pops” Staples left Mound Bayou, Mississippi, for Chicago. There, he taught his four children to sing in harmony—with little Mavis standing on a chair to reach the microphone. They performed in churches, later broadening their repertoire as the Staple Singers to include “message music” for the Civil Rights Movement, then venturing into soul, R&B, and other styles. Gifted with “a voice as deep as a river / and as dusky as the night,” Mavis describes her musical growth in architectural terms, with family the “foundation,” Chicago’s South Side a “cornerstone,” and singers such as Mahalia Jackson “bronze pillars of living inspiration.” In the reverent illustrations, the singer grows to adulthood and then iconic elder amid swirls of musical notes and song titles, plus cameos of associated stars and celebrities from Lena Horne to Martin Luther King Jr., from Elvis to Prince, and from Barack Obama to Whodini and Ice Cube. On a more personal note, she closes with a statement of values: “Put your heart in anything you do. / Keep the faith.”

A moving look back at a long and storied career.